GM Connected Vehicle Technology

One of the new safety features Gm is working on for its cars is the connected vehicle concept.

vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications technology development are now entering an advanced phase by providing eight specially equipped vehicles for a year of real-world testing. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will conduct the program, which is designed to determine the effectiveness of V2V and V2I safety technologies at reducing crashes.

The V2V-equipped Buick and Cadillac cars will be part of a larger fleet of passenger cars, commercial trucks and transit vehicles participating in the program. The hope is to reduce the incidents by leaving the task to the cars themselves and not the drivers.

GM press release:

In late 2013, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) will use data collected by these vehicles to measure overall system benefits. Analysis of the data could result in a wide-scale deployment V2V technology before the end of the decade.

“Safety is our No. 1 priority, and this research could save lives and prevent injuries across America,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a transportation department press release about the project. “With more than 30,000 people a year killed on our nation’s roads, we need to keep looking for new ways to improve safety and reduce fatalities.”

V2V communication allows vehicles to send and receive from each other basic information such as location, speed and direction of travel. V2I communication shares information about traffic signal phase, road attributes and surface conditions. Each technology has the potential to mitigate traffic collisions and congestion. Together, they can be integrated with active safety features, such as forward collision warning and side blind zone alert, already available on many production cars.

“Participating in this program will help GM and our research partners gain a more accurate, detailed understanding of V2V and V2I’s potential safety benefits,” said Nady Boules, GM Global R&D director of the Electrical and Control Systems Research Lab. “It is essential that common standards and security framework be established for V2V and V2I technologies so that vehicles from different automakers can communicate and interoperate with each other in a consistent manner.”

The V2V-equipped Buicks and Cadillacs will be joined by vehicles from its partners in the Vehicle Safety Communications 3 Consortium, which is part of the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership. A large fleet that uses comparable aftermarket safety devices or simpler Vehicle Awareness Devices also will be involved.

The V2V vehicles GM is providing use production-viable integrated systems capable of sending and receiving information from other vehicles, and warning drivers when potential for a collision is detected.

For the V2I portion of the program, 73 lane-miles of Ann Arbor roadway have been instrumented with 29 roadside-equipment installations. The transportation department selected the college town for the program due to its traffic mix, variety of roadway types and characteristics, seasonal weather and proximity to vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.